Are We There Yet? A Communications Evaluation Guide

Most foundation and nonprofit communicators can speak at length about the work they do and what it's intended to achieve. But when it comes to describing exactly what their efforts are achieving, few can offer specifics.This guide helps foundation and nonprofit communicators learn whether their communications are effective and what is being achieved -- and determine if any course corrections are necessary.Among the reasons stressed for evaluating communication efforts are these:Evaluation improves the effectiveness of communications.Evaluation can help organizations more effectively engage with intended audiences.Situations change - strategies and tactics may need to change as well.Evaluation ensures wise allocation of resources.The guide points out that evaluation need not be limited to large-scale campaigns or major outreach activities, but should also conducted for efforts to raise awareness of an organization or an issue. And once an evaluation is underway, the guide suggests findings be shared with those who may benefit from what is learned, such as team members, the board, colleagues and peers.The guide includes:Background on why evaluation can contribute to good communications.Four case studies of evaluation in action from the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Neimand Collaborative, and the California HealthCare Foundation.A worksheet for creating an evaluation plan

A HALF BILLION DOLLARS ADDING UP TO SMALL CHANGE: THE PROMISES AND PITFALLS OF CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY TO SUPPORT GLOBAL EDUCATION

At the start of the 21st century, the international community pledged an increase in volume, predictability, and coordination of external financing and monitoring for Education for All goals. Yet despite, this commitment, the global community has fallen far short of mobilizing enough resources to finance basic education for all children by 2015. Estimates support an approximate $16.2 billion in external resources needed to achieve basic education goals; the estimate increases to$25 billion if lower secondary schooling in also included. This study examines the role of U.S. corporate philanthropy to support education in developing countries. The purpose is to map the volume and focus of U.S. corporate philanthropy directed to education in developing countries, highlighting the scope and the limitations of corporate resources for realizing global education goals. The study used a mix-method design combining quantitative and qualitative survey data with qualitative interview data to answer two questions: 1. What is the volume and focus of U.S. corporate philanthropy directed toward education in developing countries? 2. How do corporate contributions to education in developing countries align with the private interests of corporations? This study finds that U.S. companies give a half billion dollars in contributions to education in developing countries annually, spanning multiple themes and targeting over 100 countries. Contributions focus heavily on emerging economies and do not target countries in most need. Additionally, U.S. companies have a variety of business motivations that drive the contributions to education in developing countries. Despite the unique assets of corporate philanthropy which make it an interesting source of financing, there are several limitations and critiques of these contributions. The contributions are typically small, short-term grants to non-profits and very few companies coordinate with governments, donors or other corporate philanthropists. There are also contradictions in the way philanthropy is conducted and tensions between the role of government and corporate resources for education. The study concludes that while corporate philanthropy in its current form may not be an effective source of sustainable financing for education in developing countries, several modifications can be made to improve its effectiveness as a global education financing partner

Are We There Yet? How to Know Whether Your Communications Are Effective

· This article describes the results of a study on current knowledge and practices in evaluating foundation communications. The study consisted of three parts: an online survey of practitioners, a series of in-depth key informant interviews, and an extensive literature review. · The study found that while most practitioners agree that evaluating communications is necessary to make decisions about their communication strategy, more than half did not regularly do so. Lack of experience or skills was the second top barrier cited, after lack of human/financial resources. · Those who have more experience with evaluation were more likely to feel that it was not too difficult or expensive and that it was important to share results than those with less experience. · While there are worthy resources on program and campaign evaluation, few tools exist that are specific to evaluating foundation and nonprofit communications. The tangible result of this study was the development of such a tool for communication practitioners

A multi-phase approach to select new wine yeast strains with enhanced fermentative fitness and glutathione production

The genetic improvement of winemaking yeasts is a virtually infinite process, as the design of new strains must always cope with varied and ever-evolving production contexts. Good wine yeasts must feature both good primary traits, which are related to the overall fermentative fitness of the strain, and secondary traits, which provide accessory features augmenting its technological value. In this context, the superiority of “blind,” genetic improvement techniques, as those based on the direct selection of the desired phenotype without prior knowledge of the genotype, was widely proven. Blind techniques such as adaptive evolution strategies were implemented for the enhancement of many traits of interest in the winemaking field. However, these strategies usually focus on single traits: this possibly leads to genetic tradeoff phenomena, where the selection of enhanced secondary traits might lead to sub-optimal primary fermentation traits. To circumvent this phenomenon, we applied a multi-step and strongly directed genetic improvement strategy aimed at combining a strong fermentative aptitude (primary trait) with an enhanced production of glutathione (secondary trait). We exploited the random genetic recombination associated to a library of 69 monosporic clones of strain UMCC 855 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to search for new candidates possessing both traits. This was achieved by consecutively applying three directional selective criteria: molybdate resistance (1), fermentative aptitude (2), and glutathione production (3). The strategy brought to the selection of strain 21T2-D58, which produces a high concentration of glutathione, comparable to that of other glutathione high-producers, still with a much greater fermentative aptitude